


when the kids are gone (darling i’ll still have you)

by OceanMyth



Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [29]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, Fluff, Ice Skating, Old People In Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:16:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28885986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OceanMyth/pseuds/OceanMyth
Summary: Aang and Katara get some time alone, now that all (or almost all) of their children have grown up and left home.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2113209
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	when the kids are gone (darling i’ll still have you)

Tenzin was out for the night with Lin, and the house was quiet and empty.

Quieter than it had been since the faint darkness before dawn that morning, and an empty that had been becoming more and more commonplace since Bumi and Kya had left to make their own lives.

Now, the quiet and empty could be lonely, but at the moment Katara is pressed against her husband's side on the front step of their home, and the two of them are watching the lights of Republic City across the bay. If it wasn’t for the stiffness in her back and hip and the twinkle of electric lights, this moment could have been from the early months after they’d gotten married. 

Perhaps it is.

Perhaps those early months stretched into her own personal eternity while she wasn’t paying attention. It feels like there will be no other time but this— and there will certainly be no love like Aang’s hand wrapped around hers, and the slight chill of autumn air held away by the warmth of his body.

Her breath sparkles faintly white and cloudy in the crisp air.

“Come with me?” Aang asks, and Katara jerks forwards a little bit, startled from her reverie. She doesn’t say anything, but she knows she’s given him permission with the look of curiosity in her eyes, and there it is— before she knows it he is gently pulling her up from her seat on the step. The leaves crunch underfoot as he leads her into the dark.

Katara follows him down the path to the shore, a set of stone stairs he’d carved into the island while it was still being built, the stairs that he’d teased her about endlessly— because she’d commented once about how it would be nice if she could find her way to the ocean on those nights where the moon is full and she can’t sleep. The stairs she hadn’t used as much as she thought she would, because as the years passed, the children had kept her awake and sleep became a precious commodity.

When they get down to the beach, Aang continues to tug her forward. She pulls back.

“Aang— it’s the middle of autumn. I don’t think it’s a good idea to go for a swim— if nothing else, because I don’t want to explain to Tenzin how we caught a cold.” Aang grins at her.

“Good thing we aren’t going to be swimming then,” he says.

Then the ocean is turning to ice before them. The waves freeze in place, swells crashing against the shore suddenly breathtaking ice sculptures. The change slides swift and smooth across the little bay— when Katara can tear her gaze away from the display, she finds Aang’s arms stretched out in front of him, still planted in the waterbending stance. 

His grin has also morphed into an unrepentantly proud beam.

“Oh? If we aren’t going to be swimming, what are we going to do? Did you just bring me down here to show off?” Katara asks, trying to tease, but her voice comes out a little too soft and breathless. Aang has always been able to take her breath away.

“I thought we could go skating— it’s been years since it was just the two of us.”

  
  
“I— that sounds wonderful Aang,” she says.

There aren’t any fancy tricks this time, nobody is trying to show off— Aang spins her around once or twice, as they make their way around the bay, but it’s more like the slow dancing they do in their kitchen than something they would have done when they were younger.

Their hands stay clasped the entire time.

They are old, and Katara’s hair is more grey than brown— in fact, it’s mostly grey with only a few brown hairs still clinging passionately to youth (those, she thinks, will stay as long as Aang is there to smooth them away from her face in the mornings— he will always keep her young). But age doesn’t change the look in Aang’s eyes as he spins her, and it doesn’t change the way they collapse together laughing on the sand.

Age, however, does mean that she’ll be doing a healing session on both herself and Aang so that they aren’t _too_ sore in the morning. She’s not interested in hearing Tenzin scold them for not taking care of themselves better.

**Author's Note:**

> This is not the only ice-skating oneshot i have-- this was, in fact, originally intended to be a coda to another ice-skating oneshot. However it didn't fit together anymore, so I decided to post it as its own little thing.
> 
> Tell me what you thought in the comments, or on tumblr @justoceanmyth.


End file.
